We discussed this a bit in the Legacy not selling well thread, but I thought it would be a good separate topic. I say this having been one of the first people to suggest themed waves back then, and being thrilled that they happened. But now, with all 3 PT films out and Hasbro's new fetish with EU, I find myself waiting half a year at a time for an OT themed wave. Since filling out a themed wave inevitably adds less desirable future pegwarmers, why not return to non-themed waves that would feature more desirable characters from across all sources? If I could get a couple OT characters every month or month and a half, I think I'd prefer it over getting an entire wave every 5 or 6 months. Not to mention, in the same wave we could get an Ackbar and Bom Vimdin, or an Echo base trooper and a new Weequay. And that's just OT suggestions! You guys who buy all characters could get your scenes or themes built slowly but surely. And no film or scene would get knocked out in just one wave (like a Dagobah-themed wave for example).

I think part of the problem with themed waves is that certain scenes are rapidly dwindling in the amount of new characters that can be drawn from them. Heck even the OT in general is starting to loss capacity for never before made characters, with exception to the Cantina (even then, that's getting less and less) or Jabba's Palace.

Logged

I'm just a humble collector trying to make his way through the universe...of toy aisles."We are strong. We are resilient. We are American." - President Barack Obama, State of the Union Address 2010

I like themed waves, but I'm with Rob, as long as we get new figures, I'm happy.

I have to agree. I rather they stick with Themed waves and have the random **** in the comic packs/exclusives. Seeing Han Solo next to Darth Maul & a Clonetrooper does not jive with me.I think there are a lot of factors with the slowdown besides the obvious ones of the economy &. price increases.

The long delay between waves does not drive/encourage foot traffic. With waves being so spread out what's the point of going back into stores. Character selection does factor in but outside of Yarna, the Weequay drummer and the Organas I did not see any other Legacy figure warm shelves for long.

Another reason is Hasbro cannibalized their own sales with CW, Marvel & Joes. The same 3.75' collector commonly collects those other lines and have only so many dollars to spend.

Going to non-themed waves might very well go hand-in-hand with merging the Legacy & Legends lines, which would probably be even worse for us collectors. We could even end up with only 2-4 new sculpts per wave.

I also see their logic in movie themed waves while doing the BAD promo. It'd have been too much for some dedicated PT or OT collectors to have buy a lot of other stuff for them to collect their droids, though since they already have PT droids in OT waves and vice versa, it really might not be that different I suppose.

Wow, someone actually agrees with that? That didn't happen over at the otherR place.

Here's the methodology that struck me about this concept. I think that if you look at a themed wave VS a non-themed wave, the theme might actually give the minor characters a little more traction with the consumers. Let's just look at one such character like Utris M'toc.

Say we were going with a non themed wave of 6 figures, with one from each movie. Two would be major characters, one would be a trooper of some sort, there would be a minor character with a speaking role, a droid and one alien.

I tired to put together a desirable wave with some sought after figures, but it seems like this wave kind of leaves at least one or two figures kind of out in the cold. But what about if it's a TESB themed wave that sticks with similar lineup parameters but the choices are limited to Episode V?

Overall this wave seems stronger to me because it's all somewhat linked together. It's not tied to a single TESB locale, but there's a common thread and the weaker characters like Utris M'Toc or even Lt. Sheckil don't seem like they're hanging out in the cold.